Bikes

Yamaha R1M Café Racer by Holographic Hammer

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Even if most of it is just manipulating pixels, we are big fans of the work being done by the guys at Holographic Hammer, as they are bringing something fresh and unique to the industry, which is always a good thing.

That being said, we wanted to take a minute to talk about one of HH’s recent pieces: a café racer design based off of the Yamaha R1M superbike. The idea is sort of out there, but yet also makes a reasonable amount of sense.

Let’s be frank, the idea of using an R1 for a café racer concept is our kind of crazy. But, the design also makes some sense when you look at Yamaha’s recent focus on its “sport heritage” lineup, which is an attempt to appeal to the post-authentic crowd.

We are not sure how many skinny jeans and tall lattes are looking for a 200hp café project, but it is certainly a lurid idea, and bound to be more fun to ride (and more reliable) than most of the Honda CB350 builds we see every day.

Nowhere is it written that custom motorcycles can’t be performance driven, and using the new R1M as a base is a compelling thought in that regard. This is because motorcycle manufacturers are always looking for ways that bikes in different segments can pull from the same parts bin.

In Yamaha’s case, look at how much mileage the three-cylinder power plant from the FZ-09 has gotten with the FJ-09, XSR900, and beyond. The same can be true for the YZF-R1, and in fact, that needs to be the case with superbike designs.

Arguably the most R&D goes into supersport machines, with liter-class superbikes requiring a mix of maximum performance  and cut-throat pricing at the dealership.

The bang for the buck ratio on these bikes is incredibly high, which means they are incredibly upside-down from a cost perspective. So, it doesn’t surprise when manufacturers just consider superbikes and hyperbikes as brand loss-leaders – writing the bikes off as halo projects that get people into the brand.

This is because it is hard to make a buck selling R1 superbikes, recalls not withstanding, so if Yamaha can take the R1 platform and build other compelling machines off of it, that’s a huge win for the Tuning Fork brand in terms of recouping development costs.

This concept from Holographic Hammer may not be “that design” that fits into Yamaha’s lineup and sells more superbike parts, but it gives a good idea of what can be done to the liter-bike engine and chassis, transferring what was intended for the race track into an appealing road bike. Definitely worth chewing on.

Source: Holographic Hammer

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